Contact Maybelline and tell them that there are less problematic ways to advertise nude-colored products! You can also comment on their Facebook and Twitter.

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archive: Maybelline’s Ad is All Sexualization, Never Innovation

Questions to Consider:

What is Maybelline trying to make you feel about their product?

What do you think about this ad being shown in a magazine that teens read?

What We Think:

Maybelline’s advertisement for “The Blushed Nudes Palette” uses old and tired connotations in the hopes of enticing consumers to buy their product. This makeup company certainly isn’t the first to employ provocative language and sensual imagery when trying to sell a nude-colored collection, but it is disturbing to find this particular ad in Seventeen–a magazine geared specifically towards teenage girls. It is problematic that the color nude is linked to nakedness, as not everyone has beige skin, and that this association is used to turn females into objects of desire. Women and underage girls shouldn’t be pressured to act in a certain way or sexualized for wearing the cosmetics they like. Rather than daring teens “to go nude”, we should instead teach them to be bold by being themselves. — Kendra De Nike